Cell Lock – Protect your cargo in transit with Netshield end-to-end IoT

The Netshield Cell Lock end-to-end IoT solution lets businesses transport high-risk and high-value goods safely and securely with optional constant health/environmental monitoring of goods during transportation.

The cloud-based solution includes the installation of a GSM and GNSS/GPS-enabled bolt lock on a vehicle’s cargo container that requires a unique PIN to unlock it – which is sent to the driver’s designated mobile device when the vehicle arrives within a pre-allocated geo-fenced delivery area within the allocated time schedule and optional dissipating and receiving warehouse manager interaction on a single or multi delivery route.

“Valuable and environmentally (temperature/humidity & flooding) sensitive cargo is transported daily on our roads, and cargo theft is unfortunately still a reality in our modern civilisation,” said Inus Dreckmeyr, CEO at Netshield South Africa.

“Our solution is highly secure and gives business owners ease of mind when transporting valuable cargo. Fitting this multilayer access control and monitoring solution to delivery vehicles radically reduces the probability of internally orchestrated loss and theft, increases the time needed to enter the vehicle upon hijackings and time that response teams has to get to the vehicle, and offers the added value of accurately recording environmental and other critical conditions during transit and delivery.”

The Cell Lock system provides the geographical position of the cargo at all times and notifies the owner of emergency situations immediately through SMS reporting. It identifies when the vehicle is moving without an activated lock or moving while the ignition is switched off. The logistics supervisor also has the ability to constantly view the vehicle’s actual environmental conditions, temperature, humidity, water leaks or flooding within the cargo container.

End-to-end IoT

The Cell Lock solution forms part of Netshield’s end-to-end IoT solutions, which assists customers with the development, management, and deployment of successful IoT implementations – from sensors, through to the gateways, dashboards, and analytics.

What sets Netshield’s IoT solutions apart is that the company has partnered with various bandwidth providers, cloud IoT gateway suppliers, storage organisations, software houses, and analytics solutions to provide a holistic answer to a customer’s IoT needs.

“What we have done is used our experience and knowledge of IoT to bring together partnerships that offer customers a full end-to-end IoT experience without the need to get multiple vendors and suppliers involved, and that comes in at a fraction of the cost,” said Dreckmeyr.

By partnering with key vendors, Netshield can offer customers a seamless view of their IoT, which can be viewed, monitored, and controlled through a single dashboard and reveals accurate analytics even though the IoT environment is made up of components from multiple sources.

Notable vendor partnerships include IBM, SAP, and Microsoft, as well as a host of cloud providers and component suppliers.

“Our promise is to provide the simplicity, with a single layered OEM approach, and offer a solution that can be 100% tailor-made to a volume customer,” said Dreckmeyr. “We have evidenced what can be done with IoT environments that work, and we have confidence in the solution we have built.”

How Netshield’s Cell Lock works

• On receipt of delivery schedule the disputes manager allocates specific deliveries to a vehicle/driver on the cloud based dashboard, the system then download the coordinates, time schedule, preferred route, security codes and receiving warehouse manager login to the specific vehicle
• When a delivery destination is reached the vehicle triggers the unlocking procedure, dependant on preselection preferences, that can include some or all the following options; scheduled delivery time, destination Geo fencing, SMS or GPRS/3G interactive messaging with the driver, the dispatching manager and goods receiving manager. The interactive messaging and unlocking codes can be replied to from either a GSM based device or a cloud connected workstation/(PC).
• The Geo Fencing size is linked to a user selectable variable that regulates the size of each Geo Fencing area at each delivery desitination.
• The system enables the driver, distich manager to only open or unlock the cargo container within the GPS perimeter.
• Upon arrival, the system interact and may include a randomly generatedaccess code via SMS or other GSM communications from the cloud based management software or the vehicle control system when inside the geo fence perimeter. The code is only valid for a specific delivery destination on a specific
• The when driver enters the access code in the correct sequence and no interaction from receiving or detaching manager is required the cargo doors unlocks. Should the driver enter the access code in an incorrect sequence, the doors will unlocks to protect the driver, but an alert is sent to the cloud management platform and an SMS can be triggered to the dispatching manager. .

Alerts are generated on the following

• Deviation from preferred routes
• Illegal stoppages and vehicle starter key conditions outside allocated Geo fenced destinations
• Tampering with container or container doors
• Incorrect sequence of access code

Doors open for longer than preconfigured time

• Back battery system failure
• High or low temperature, humidity and flooding conditions
• Vehicle towing or Possible hijacking risk
• Activation of Panic button

A diagram of how the Netshield Cell Lock works is illustrated below.

For more information, visit the Netshield website.